HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL 1951
This is the Saturday Night Fright Midnight movie for ON A ROLL episode of The Friday Night Radio Horror Program presented by Odd FM W. O. D. D. Royal Oak
NIGHT OF THE COMET 1984
This is the Saturday Night Fright Midnight movie for The Strawberry Moon episode of The Friday Night Radio Horror Program presented by Odd FM W. O. D. D. Royal Oak https://www.mixcloud.com/OddFM/strawberry-moon/
DANGER - SPOILER ALERTS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
ReplyDeleteHouse On Haunted Hill 1959 - I knew this was going to be fun the moment it began with the screams and disembodied head uttering doomy predictions. Vincent Price’s glued on thrift shop moustache plus the recycled war movie concrete bunker that doubled as the haunted house confirmed it.
The story seemed improbable from the get go but then most spooky films are. The acid bath was an unusual feature for a wine cellar but an essential part of the plot. I suppose the floating rat skeleton which should have sunk was just to confirm the acid’s power and for later action. I did get one genuine shock when the scary granny, (on roller blades?) glided past Nora in the cupboard.
I liked the later scene in the cellar where the acid bath played a central role. OTT music and the ludicrous skeleton puppet operated by Vincent to terrify Annabelle were classics. As was the film’s ending with cheesy warnings about ghosts coming to get us - nicely ripe.!
Some loose ends - how come the puppet strings weren’t dissolved by the acid, who was controlling the doors, lights and chandelier, (maybe the creepy caretakers?), how did Annabelle get outside, hover by Nora’s window and send that rope crawling around her legs? We’ll never know for sure but that’s not unusual in haunted houses.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) - I thought this was a quality film that beautifully set the scenes of weird happenings in small town America in the fifties. The characters seemed plausible, solid types like the local doctor and his friends that you’d have found in a small rural town.
The slow build up was one of its strengths as the film isn’t stuffed with showy special effects and the tension gradually rises as the alien takeover becomes ever more apparent. The pod scene in the greenhouse was suitably icky and slimy as the creatures morphed into human forms and looked realistic. It was never explained what happens to the real people once they sleep and are duplicated and the ending where the they authorities suddenly take action to confront the menace was kinda ludicrous.
But overall the movie was a creepy and the atmosphere of justified paranoia was pretty convincing.